The Hogwarts Few
by A. S. Rainwater
Summary: What was happening at Hogwarts while the trio searched for Horcruxes? Slightly OOC, femslash, closely canon to events in DH. Ginny/Hermione, Luna/OC, Snape/OC, Harry/Cho, Ron/Lavender please R&R.. ON HIATUS
1. Chapter 1

**A.S.R. here... this is my first attempt at Potter fiction. I would like to take a moment to say that I am not the goddess Rowling, therefore the canon characters are not mine, and the plot points taken from The Deathly Hallows are not mine. I only take credit for my own creations and that is it. If you are a fan of my Twilight story, rest assured I am still working on it, but I needed a change of scenery... and my friend Livy is on my ass about this fic lol. Oh yeah, Livy is also a co-writer in this, so I can't take all the genius credit :P**

**That being said, please enjoy, and don't for get to press that little blue link at the bottom that says, "Review this chapter". Thank you!**

"Mione...?"

Hermione's mouth curved up into the soft smile she always had whenever she heard her lover's soft tone speak her name. "Yes, Ginny?"

"Do you really have to go?"

Hermione stretched out on the grass next to her girlfriend, looking over into the warmest place in her life: Ginny's dark brown eyes. She reached down to lace her fingers through Ginny's, holding the same hand she'd held for nearly three years, and looking as seriously as she could at the only face that could shatter everything in her at any given moment. "You know I do," she replied in a tone to match Ginny's. "I won't leave Harry to do this alone. You trust me, right?"

"I do," Ginny said sadly, tears forming.

"Then know that I'll come home to you when this all over and Voldemort's dead," Hermione whispered, leaning to kiss the tears now sliding silently down Ginny's wind-chapped cheeks. "There's no where in the world I'd rather be than right here with you."

Ginny rolled over to bury her face into Hermione's robes, sobs overtaking her, embarrassed that she couldn't be strong when Hermione needed it most. Hermione held her girlfriend tightly, closing her eyes at her own pain, dreading the task that Professor Dumbledore had left to her and her two best friends. Harry was with Cho as she and Ginny lay in the garden at the Burrow, and Ron was preoccupied with his own obnoxious girlfriend, Lavender. The three of them had spent every chance they had with their significant others, scared that they would never see them again after Bill and Fleur's wedding the next day. That was when the three friends would set out on the most dangerous journey they could ever imagine, finding Voldemort's secret Horcruxes and destroying them one by one. Ginny didn't know the extent of the mission, but nonetheless felt the severity when Hermione broke the news to her that she wouldn't be returning to Hogwarts this year, and that she would be doing something important in the war against the Dark Lord and his followers.

"You're so brave," Ginny whispered, thinking that this was the true reason her genius girlfriend had been placed in bold Gryffindor, rather than brainy Ravenclaw with their friends Maia and Luna. "I admire you so much, yet I hate that you won't let me come with you. I still say I could help."

Hermione couldn't help but chuckle softly at Ginny's defiance beneath the sadness. Ginny was just as brave as Hermione, and a talented witch with powerful wandwork, but this was a journey for Harry, Ron, and Hermione alone. Dumbledore had seen to that before Snape murdered him on the Tower before end of last term. Even if it were possible for Ginny to tag along, Hermione would never have allowed it; it was too dangerous, and she loved Ginny too much. "Bullocks," Hermione whispered playfully. "I'm not brave, Ginny, I'm terrified."

"Me, too," Ginny whispered back, lifting her tear-stained face from the folds of Hermione's robes. "What if you don't come back? What if I have to spend forever wondering where you went, and how it is you never came back?"

Hermione placed a patient finger on Ginny's beautiful mouth, ceasing the depressing words Ginny spoke. Ginny closed her eyes and pressed her lips to that finger softly, then gently moved it away so she capture Hermione's lips instead. They shared a slow and tender kiss, and Hermione left Ginny's lips to kiss her way to her ear. "Then spend that forever knowing that I died to protect you, died because I loved you, and that I'll always be with you, no matter what," she told Ginny, kissing those lips again. When Hermione's intention to make love to her became clear, Ginny stopped the kiss and the hands wandering beneath her own robes.

"We can't, not here. Everyone could see," she protested, and Hermione chuckled, pulling out her wand with an eyebrow cocked.

"You forget who I am," she reminded Ginny. "_Salvio Hexia... Protego Totalum... Muffliato!_" A few spells later, she smiled down at Ginny as she slid on top of her. "I've learned the art of stealth."

"Always the show off," Ginny teased gently as Hermione placed soft kisses on her face, and her hands wound themselves in the soft, curly tendrils of Hermione's hair.

"I only show off for you, love," Hermione countered with a little grin, covering Ginny's mouth with hers again.

Ginny was a storm of emotions, rooting to the unknown and the fear for her girlfriend, her brother, and one of her best friends. She could not bear to lose any of them, yet it was hard to latch on to that sadness when she felt the warmth of Hermione's mouth move lower and lower down her body, kissing her in places that only Hermione had ever kissed; she'd never want anyone else to kiss her like that... even if Hermione never came home. She would forever belong to the woman who nuzzled her inner thigh right now, the woman who could make her voice rise to a soprano when she finally kissed the juncture between her legs, the woman who spread fire through her body at the slightest touch, the woman who made her tremble uncontrollably before exploding into a beautiful nothingness... yes, she belonged to Hermione in mind, body, and soul.

* * *

"MUM! She's doing it again! Make her stop!"

Rowan's voice came floating down the stairs in the Tonks household, followed by a loud thump on the ceiling and a screech of indignance. "You wait until next year when I can do magic outside of school, Nymphadora, you just wait! I'll show you!"

Andromeda smiled softly at the sound of her girls tussling together, and shook her head at Dora's taunting words: "Aw, you little shrimp! You can't hit the broad side of a troll's bum with a hex, much less a trained Auror!" Deciding it was time to intervene before Rowan's temper was pushed too far, Andromeda moved to the stairs to call up them.

"That's enough out of you two! Now, come on down to the kitchen to eat your dinner!" she said, trying to keep the amusement from her voice. A second later, the two girls came thundering down the stairs, and Andromeda had to cover her mouth to hide her smile when Rowan appeared, disgruntled with elephant ears hanging from the sides of her head, and Dora beaming with pride at her spellwork.

"Tell her to reverse it, Mum, please! I can't... I can't go to the Weasley's like this tomorrow!" Rowan whined, throwing a dirty look at her older sister, who laughed heartily at the provocation of the little imp.

"Dora..." Andromeda began to chastise her oldest for preying on the younger's inability to defend herself with a wand, being only sixteen and underage. "You're old enough to know better, dear. Fix your sister's ears, please."

Nymphadora, or Tonks, as she simply liked to be called, rolled her blue eyes and fixed her wand on Rowan again, muttering the counter spell, and Rowan's ears shrank and returned to a normal color. "Right, well, I'm going to eat," Rowan said in a huff, pushing past her older sister to enter the kitchen.

Andromeda raised a questioning eyebrow at Tonks, who shrugged innocently. "She's been locked in her room all summer, being a brat to me when I ask what's wrong, and I figured she could use some excitement in her poor little teenage life," she told her mother, whose lips pursed as she glanced to the kitchen.

"I've noticed a difference in her, as well," Andromeda said lowly, so as Rowan not to hear the words being spoken between the two older Tonks women. "I wonder if she suspects... well, Bellatrix and Rodolphus have been out of Azkaban for a few years, now. Surely she sees the resemblance to her biological mother..." Andromeda broke off at her real daughter's firm head shake and sharp exhale.

"No, that's not it. She knows Bellatrix is your sister, and Mum, you and she favor heavily. Rowan looks more like you than Bellatrix, with the happy grin she gets, rather than the foul expression that... that... _harpy_ displays. I think it's nearly time you tell her, explain to her–"

"_No_," the older woman stated flatly, with finality. "She will not be recognized for being the daughter of a madwoman and her evil husband. She is my daughter, for all intents and purposes, and your sister."

"Mum," Tonks said quietly, looking away. "She already wonders why she is a Slytherin, when the rest of the family was Ravenclaw and Gryffindor."

"It is true, what I say to her upon being asked," Andromeda said, crossing her arms over her chest stubbornly. "She is the diamond in the rough of that House."

"What are you two whispering about in there?" Rowan called from the kitchen, making her mother and sister jump guiltily at the sound of her voice.

"Nothing, dear, we're coming," Andromeda said, bustling into the kitchen. "Now, have you packed for your trip to the Burrow?"

* * *

"Oh! Look, Maia, I can see you in the Pleides!" Luna's voice was like velvet on the ears of her girlfriend, and it was all she could do to tear her hazel eyes away from Luna's angelic features to follow her pointed finger to the diamond sky above them.

"So it is," Maia breathed, smiling softly at being named for one of the stars of the sky. "My father picked my name, you know," she told Luna, who looked back down from the heavens to smile at Maia.

"I'm sure Mr. Prewett knew you were going to be as beautiful as your namesake," Luna replied, making Maia blush heavily. She loved it when Maia blushed.

"Mum says so, too," she answered softly, looking to the stone steps upon which they sat together. "I just wish he could see it for himself."

"His death will be avenged one day, I know it," Luna sighed, wrapping an arm around the older girl's waist. "Harry will take care of his murderer."

Maia smiled at the reassurance, and looked back up at the stars, falling into the comfortable silence that she only ever had with Luna, leaning into the younger girl's side. Minutes later, she gave her own heavy sigh. "What are you going to do without me at school next year? I lament that it's my final year at Hogwarts, and that you are going to be there without me soon."

"Soon? We have a year." Luna's baby blue eyes squinted in question at Maia's demeanor, silently asking the real reason for her melancholy mood, to which Maia answered with a shrug.

"I have so many memories there," she said in almost a whisper, looking back at the sky, as if it held solutions to her sadness. "I don't know how I'm going to be able to travel the world without you, looking for Snorkacks around every corner without you."

"Well, wait for me," Luna said simply. "I'll do the research in school, and you can canvas our routes in the mean time."

"Still..." Maia gave in to the urge and brushed her lips across Luna's, making Luna smile dreamily. "We've spent every minute together since your first year, even before... well, _us_."

"There's the holidays," Luna reminded her. "And Hogsmeade."

"Every Hogsmeade weekend?" Maia asked hopefully, grinning widely when Luna nodded.

"Of course," Luna said as if it were obvious. "I'll miss my great protector, though."

Maia growled. "Just let them try to tease you while I'm not there. You press the coin, and I'll Apparate outside those gates so quickly Professor McGonagall won't know what hit her when Filch lets me in the grounds."

Luna kissed her sweetly in appreciation for her protective nature. It was what brought them together on the Hogwarts Express five years ago, before Luna was even sorted. She had been small with large eyes and a vacant expression, quietly opinionated, and automatically the Slytherins had fell to tormenting the young witch. Maia, only in her second year at Hogwarts, performed a Jelly Legs Jinx so powerful that one spell had knocked three fourth year Slytherins flat on their faces, gaining laughter and respect from Luna and the two girls sharing the compartment with her; Luna's now best friends, Ginny Weasley and Rowan Tonks.

"I can jinx people all by myself now, Maia, thanks to the D.A. meetings. I owe Harry for being such a wonderful Defense teacher," Luna said thoughtfully as she pulled away from Maia.

Maia grunted, shifting to where she was flush against Luna. "It is still my pleasure to show them who they're messing with. But at least you'll have Ginny and Rowan... the three of you together is a match made by Merlin himself." How ironic the three best friends were in separate Houses, yet were so close, despite Rowan being the one Slytherin everyone adored. You had to love a psycho with a side of playfulness, and that was Rowan in a nutshell. Rowan's fraternization with her Gryffindor and Ravenclaw best friends did not make her popular among her Slytherin brethren; her skill as a Chaser in Quidditch did, though.

"It's getting late," Luna said shyly, looking up at Maia from beneath her long eyelashes, and Maia could read that expression of want anywhere. "Maybe we should head to bed, as we have to be at your cousin's wedding early tomorrow; you promised your aunt that you would help in setting up."

Maia kissed Luna once more, dragging it out, not that Luna was complaining. This was what she had wanted, anyway. The longer they kissed, the more intense it became until Luna pulled away panting in her arousal. "Upstairs, please? Before Daddy notices?"

Maia couldn't help but giggle as she chased Luna up the stone steps and into the house, straight up to her room... "_Muffliato!_"


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I know this one is a little short, but with the things that need to happen in my next chapter, it had to be. Sorry guys.**

Ginny sat next to her cousin Maia, and scowled out across the floor to where Hermione stood chatting away with Viktor Krum, the pro-Quidditch player who seemed to still nurse a soft spot for her girlfriend. Maia couldn't help but giggle at Ginny's demeanor, thankful that Luna didn't have a list of exes for which she could be jealous. Rowan laughed out right, her cheeks a bit red from the firewhiskey in the flask hidden beneath her dress robes, and she kicked Ginny's foot beneath the table to catch her best friend's attention. "Fancy a nip, Gin?" Rowan asked Ginny when the stormy brown eyes shifted to her face.

"No, thank you," Ginny said, looking back to the now laughing pair. Apparently _Viktor_ said something funny. Ginny's scowl deepened.

"Oh, come off it, Ginny," Maia said placatingly. "You know she loves you."

Ginny's arms crossed stubbornly over her chest, and her face didn't turn from her girlfriend. "Yes, but he certainly doesn't," Ginny replied to Maia darkly, eyes narrowing as she watched Viktor extend an arm, inviting Hermione to dance.

"Or I could always hex him from here," Maia went on, not liking the look on the man's face, either, and silently cheering when Hermione politely turned him down and gestured towards the table they were seated around.

Ginny sat up a little straighter when Viktor's black eyes flickered over to where Hermione had indicated, and a challenging look set into her eyes. Hermione hugged Viktor briefly, then turned and came back towards the table, leaning and kissing Ginny before reclaiming the seat next to her. "He's just a friend, love," she reminded Ginny, who shot possessive looks to Krum, who was oogling them from the floor now, unbelieving that Hermione was indeed with a _woman_.

Luna floated over a second later, flinging herself into Maia's lap, her arms closing around the older girl's neck. "Daddy says I dance divinely. Come dance with me, Maia! Please?" Luna said excitedly, and Maia smiled and nodded, making Luna squeal and pull her to her feet.

"We'll be back," Maia said to Hermione, Ginny, and Rowan.

Rowan snuck another sip of her firewhiskey, making Hermione sigh pointedly at Rowan's delinquency. Rowan smirked. "Chill, Mione, Dora's not looking, she's with Remus," she told her rule-abiding, uptight friend. Sometimes Rowan couldn't understand how Ginny Weasley, one of the school's most free-spirited students, fell in love with the regulation-loving Hermione Granger. Granger was a _prefect_, for Merlin's sake! But she was brilliant, Rowan couldn't deny that.

"It's the principle, Rowan Tonks, I tell you this all the time," Hermione said, beginning another of her long-winded lectures she so like to recite for Rowan. "I'm so glad Ginny is above your influence..."

_Blah blah blah_, is all Rowan heard as she let her mind wander as Hermione went on her tirade. She let it wander back to three months ago, locked in a dungeon classroom with the man of her dreams, his pale skin shining against her stomach as he caressed it, and the deep groans he would give when she let her hands roam across his body as her lips explored his. The look in his serious black eyes as he told her he loved her. _I love you, too, Severus_, she thought to herself now, feeling her chest ache. Her lover was gone. He was hiding with the Dark Lord somewhere, taking refuge while the whole strength of the Ministry came down on his head for the murder of Albus Dumbledore. She knew he couldn't have done it on Voldemort's orders. She believed his innocence when many didn't. She knew the _real _Severus Snape, not the man everyone thought him to be.

Rowan's expression had gone vacant, and Ginny turned her face so Hermione couldn't see her grin. Ginny knew Rowan had turned off her ears and was in a whole other place indeed when a stupid, vapid grin stretched across the Slytherin's features, though what Hermione was saying was hardly something to give such a goofy grin about. Ginny knew where Rowan was, and held back a gag at the bad taste in her mouth. No one knew about Rowan's... lover?... but Ginny, although the thought made her nauseous. Hermione probably wrote it off to Rowan being drunk.

Harry collapsed in the chair Maia had vacated, and his girlfriend Cho fell into the one beside him. Harry was taking on the appearance of a Muggle boy with bright red hair, attempting to blend in with the many Weasley cousins in attendance of the reception. Cho didn't seem to mind, as she blushed when Harry looked over at her and gave her a crooked smile. Then Harry turned his attention to Ginny. "I've just had the pleasure of meeting your dear old Auntie Muriel," he told his friend, and Ginny snickered.

"Surely you didn't tell her who you are?" Ginny teased, knowing her Aunt Muriel wouldn't remember, even if he did.

"'Course not," Harry scoffed. "I introduce myself to her, and she calls me Barry." He shook his head with a silent chuckle. He was Cousin Barny Weasley today, a Polyjuice-induced double of a random Muggle from Ottery St. Catchpole. "Anyone seen Ron, lately?"

Hermione made a disapproving noise. "He and that girl are writhing around in a corner somewhere. She is so tacky."

Ginny laughed, nudging Hermione. "We writhe around in corners, too, you know," she reminded Hermione with a wink, and Hermione's face went red at the memory of being caught by Professor Flitwick in a second floor corner with her hand up Ginny's shirt beneath her Quidditch robes. Hermione couldn't help it; there was something sexy about Ginny coming in from Quidditch practice, wind-swept and needing a shower...

Hermione cleared her throat, coming back to the matter at hand, leaving those memories for use while she was away. "That's different. We have style," she joked, making Harry and Cho laugh, and Ginny roll her gorgeous chocolate eyes. Rowan was still sitting across the table with that grin.

Just then, a silvery lynx fell into the middle of the of the dance floor, and the voice f Kingsley Shacklebolt boomed across marquee. _"The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming."_


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but OCs...**

The chaos that ensued was bombarding every sense that Ginny possessed. One second, Hermione was sitting next to her, and then she was gone. Whipping her head around as Death Eaters and Ministry officials alike invaded the private wedding reception, she drew her wand as she blasted a Shield Charm around her, giving her the opportunity to take a frantic sweep of the tent for Hermione. She saw a flash of a brown curly mane as it snatched a red headed boy from a hysterical female, and then as another red haired boy was pulled in, the three turned on the spot and disappeared. Hermione was gone, and Ginny knew they couldn't return, not with the attack, not with Harry being who he is.

"Ginny, get down!" Rowan's voice yelled, and her hand came down on top of Ginny's head, shoving her under the table as Rowan deflected the Stunning Spell aimed for her best friend. Rowan didn't give a shit she was underage, and with Ginny likewise rolling back to her feet with her wand out, the two young witches stood back to back with their wands outstretched ominously; anyone who knew them would tell you they were a formidable duo, made only better by the addition of Luna, who was across the marquee with Maia, both of them back to back and aiming their own wands.

"Now, now," a bored voice said quietly, coming in the main entrance of the tent, taking in the scene before him with a sweeping gaze. The tables mostly obliterated, and debris smoking still from missed spells, what people that did not Disapparate holding in defensive groups, wands out everywhere. He sneered, despising that he had to stand here among so much... blood traitor filth. "There is no reason for the wands to be out. If you know what's good for you, you'll put them away before I have my men strip them from you and break them in half before your very eyes... DO IT NOW!" the man screamed, his dark eyes bulging just bit in his insanity, when no one in the area made a move to sheath their only protection. Hesitantly, everyone glanced around as wands were lowered, by wedding attendants and Ministry alike. "Right, then," the man sniffed, loosening the collar of his robes. "I shall need the owners of the property to come forth, please."

Maia and Luna watched as Ginny's mum and dad took a few steps towards the man in the black robes, both looking livid. "This is my land," Mr. Weasley snarled, uncharacteristically, and Maia and Ginny locked eyes across the marquee. "And my son's wedding! What is your business here, Thicknesse? Be done and leave!"

"You'll like to watch your tone when speaking to the Minister of Magic," the man Thicknesse hissed at Mr. Weasley, who balked, taking a step back. "And my business here is see who all may have attended your soiree this day... Have any of you seen... young Mr. Potter?"

The room was silent, no one daring to give away Harry's whereabouts to these men, and more than half the people in attendance had no idea he had been there at all. Pius Thicknesse surveyed the room again slowly, his eyes touching every face there. "Hmm. I think some of you are fibbers. Yaxley, you and the guys give our witnesses a little... persuasion."

Multiple cries of "_Crucio!_" echoed all around, met by the screams of the dozens of people falling under the torture curse simultaneously, and Thicknesse whipped his flowing robes through the crowd as he walked past the yowling witches and wizards. "HOW ABOUT NOW?" he bellowed over the pleas and cries of those around him. "DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE HARRY POTTER IS HIDING?"

Hours it seemed to last, days, or months, that Maia writhed beneath the curse, blinded in the pain, seeing nothing but the white hot burn that settled into her physical being, until finally it stopped, and she fell against the ground, panting and she heard a familiar voice whimper from her right, and her hand reached out and found it mark in a pale hand creeping to her. Thicknesse wasn't done, however.

"Harry Potter is wanted in questioning concerning the murder of Albus Dumbledore. So, I suggest that, if you are aiding and abetting this wanted man, you deliver him to your Ministry with haste. He is extremely dangerous to society, and to all Wizardkind. And if any of you are found in his company, you will suffer the consequences at a hand far better practiced at the Arts than mine." He smiled a terrible smile as he took a last glance around the room, at the people quietly sobbing or comforting a loved one, and the smile faded into a deep sneer. Weakness, the love he felt these pathetic Mudblood lovers give to one another. He made a motion for Yaxley and his men to follow, but a sharp gasp from the back of the room made him stop and turn around.

"What is it?" he asked irritably, and a man called Rabastian Lestrange did a double take as his gaze had fallen on Rowan, who scowled her worst at him.

"Minister– she is my niece! My brother's only child!" The look of surprise faded, and a look of outraged replaced it. "What is your name, girl! Why are you here amongst the lowest of our kind?"

Rowan tilted her chin up and looked the ugly man directly into his eyes. "I am Rowan Tonks. I don't know this girl you speak of, but my parents are not related to you! My father," she said, her eyes narrowing in a dare for the man to say anything, "is a Muggle-born." Said with so much pride that Ginny felt her heart swell for her Slytherin best friend.

"Ted Tonks is _not _your father, anymore than Andromeda is your mother, or that beast-loving slut is your sister," Rabastian snarled, marching over and taking Rowan by the upper arm, yanking her roughly behind him.

Rowan tried to aim her wand in the man's face, but was Disarmed by another in the company, and yet another one Stunned Ginny as she tried to attack Lestrange. Luna cried out, but Maia closed a gentle hand on Luna's mouth, and aimed her own wand at the man, but couldn't act for the Body-Bind Curse that slapped her like a brick, knocking her on her back, and Luna was so distraught that she Stunned herself.

"Let me go you freak!" Rowan squealed turning herself in the hands of her captor, and Molly Weasley took one step before also being Stunned.

"Enough with that mouth, you sound like your _real_ mother– Bellatrix Black Lestrange," and the shock of his words made Rowan lose her breath. She had not believed it. But there it was again. The truth of why she never felt like she belonged.


	4. Chapter 4

_Oh Merlin's balls, what just happened to me?_ Ginny thought to herself as she came to with a headache like she'd never felt, and as she opened her eyes and tried to sit up, her muscles screamed in pain. _Was I playing Quidditch? Did I get pounded by Bludgers or something? _Rubbing the top of her head to try to ease some pounding pressure, she looked around at the room around her and realized she was in her bed. Her dark eyes traveled the dim room, and she took note that it was dusk outside her window. "What...?" Her voice came out raspy, and she tried to clear it, but she was dry-mouthed and it was to no avail.

Heaving herself up to a sitting position, ignoring the pain like the athlete she was, she searched herself for her wand, and gasped when she pulled it from her robes. As soon as she made the action, she remembered all too well drawing it hours before in the giant tent outside her home. She remembered watching Hermione Disapparate, she remembered the Death Eaters coming, she remembered the pain (oh, that explained the Bludger-like symptoms) of the Cruciatus Curse, and she remembered that man taking Rowan, but she hadn't– _I didn't save her._

All thoughts of her bodily pains overruled by worry for her best friend, Ginny went tearing free of her bedroom and down the stairs, the thoughts of what happened to Luna and Maia, she'd only just seen them before she tried to attack the son of a bitch dragging Rowan away from them. "What in the bloody hell happened out there today? And what happened to Rowan? Is anyone looking for her? Where's Luna and Maia? Have you heard from R–"

Her mother clapped a hand over her mouth, and put her finger to her lips. "You shush now, Ginevra. Your brother is sick, and you don't want to bother him," she said pointedly, shooting her eyes towards the kitchen, where Ginny now heard deep voices talking in firm, serious tones. _Sick?_ Ginny thought, and then it hit her: the ghoul had moved into Ron's room to be his decoy for his time away. They really were gone...

"Come on, dear, let's get you back up to your room, I'll bring you a cup of tonic for the aches..." Her mother looked down at her with tears standing in her eyes, and made a motion for Ginny to go back upstairs.

Waiting for her mother to come upstairs was torture for Ginny, seeing as she needed the answers _now_, feeling like she might explode with the unknown and the fear it carried with it. She didn't sit, she paced back and forth, her wand out and tapping her thigh as she turned about in her tiny space. She stopped when red sparks flew from the tip, and merely held it still at her side as she continued to pace, impatient as ever, and there was no way in hell she was putting her wand away.

Finally her bedroom door opened and her mother walked in, the promised tonic in a steaming mug, the smell like gingerbread. "Are they gone?" Ginny whispered fiercely.

Her mother nodded wearily, sitting down on Ginny's bed, and suddenly her mother looked twenty years older. "Mum?" Ginny moved to sit beside Molly on the bed, and when she did, Molly looked up into a copy of her own eyes, set in the face of her youngest child.

"Ginny, dear, there's good news, and very bad news. Which do you want first?"

"The bad, please," Ginny whispered, steeling herself for the worst...

"Rowan is gone, they took her with them. We believe they are taking her to Malfoy Manor, where her biological parents have been staying..." Molly's voice trailed off at the apalled look on her daughter's face.

"That was _true_?" Ginny started pacing again, furiously this time, and Molly watched on, sad for having to break this news to her. "Then you've all been lying to us the entirity of our _lives_?"

"Ginny, come now, calm your temper and really think about that. Of course we didn't tell Rowan-or you- who her real parents are. Can you imagine growing up knowing that? Or letting that influence her development in any way? Do you think, that if Rowan had grown up aware of her roots, that she would still be your best friend?"

"Yes," Ginny said, not missing a beat. "Rowan is who she is, despite whatever blood runs through her veins! Andromeda is of the same line- did she grow up _influenced_ by the atrocious nature of the majority of the Black family? No, and neither did Sirius! It has nothing to do with _blood_, Mother."

Molly sighed, understanding what Ginny was saying, but still standing by her belief. "Do you want to hear the rest of it?" she asked the angry teenager, who still wore a trench in the rug as she paced.

Ginny shot her a glare, but Molly knew that she would want the rest of the news. "We sent a Patronus to... them." Molly made a motion to the perfectly made cot in the corner where Hermione "slept" on her visits to the Burrow. The cot was perfectly made because Hermione hadn't slept in it for three years, she had cuddled Ginny on every stay since; Ginny thought her mother was ignorant of that fact, but in fact, Molly knew they were sharing a bed since before they'd even admitted the relationship. "We told them we were safe, and not to reply. That should soothe their worries about all of us."

Ginny's anger had abated slightly with the information, but she was still pissed off nonetheless. Molly sighed and went on. "Maia's mother came to collect her after it happened, and Luna's father took her home. I suggest you wait for any sort of contact with anyone; it would look suspicious, and please mind what you put down in ink, and send with owls."

Ginny nodded curtly, and her mother left her room, after placing a kiss on Ginny's furrowed brow. "Everything will be okay, love," her mother whispered, and Ginny's mind automatically inserted the words in Hermione's voice, causing Ginny's eyes to tear.

Not showing her face to her mother, Ginny mumbled a good night, and Molly left her daughter to her thoughts, descending the stairs with a heavy heart. Ginny listened to the footsteps grow faint until she heard them no more, and collapsed onto her bed, burying her face in her hands, her wand in her lap, her shoulders quaking with sobs. Hermione was gone doing things Ginny couldn't even begin to guess at, Ron and Harry with her... She trusted Harry's instinct, and Hermione's brains, and her brother's... well, she trusted Harry and Hermione, and trusted Ron to take their lead. Rowan had been taken to the Death Eaters' headquarters, perhaps in front of Voldemort himself... what if she couldn't keep that big trap of hers shut, so that she lived? What if she pressed the wrong buttons with people? Would her blood status be enough to save her slack-jawed, stubborn ass? Ginny couldn't bear to think of it. And Luna... Ginny made a vague plan in her mind to see Luna as soon as possible, to sit with a piece of the her threefold self, and try to figure out what to do about the missing link... perhaps a rescue mission? No, she knew that wouldn't work.

As Ginny sat on her bed, her head hanging down on her chest, wiping her dripping nose on the sleeve of her dress robes she was still wearing. She picked up her wand, and caught sight of the scar on the palm of her left hand, her mind flashing back to the night she'd gotten it, and it's twin on the palm of her right hand. She couldn't help but smile softly, closing her left fist and re-opening it, her right hand hesitantly lifting her wand. She was underage; she didn't know if she should press the tip of it to the scar, if the magic could be traced to her, or to her house. Her mother would never know... and besides, she needed to know for sure that Rowan lived, that she was okay.

Making up her mind, Ginny touched the tip of her wand to the two inch scar, gasping at the sudden burn in her hand, telling her that she was connecting to the soul that was attached to this scar. Rowan lived, and Ginny knew she had just felt the burn in her right hand, the hand that belonged to Ginny. Ginny sighed a deep sigh of a light relief, and found herself yawning. As she stripped her robes free of her body, she felt a pang of despair when she realized she was sleeping alone tonight... and for a long time after.

* * *

Luna couldn't sleep. She tossed and turned in her cold bed, fighting off the guilt and the frustration of Rowan's kidnapping. It angered her that she had gotten so flustered, so upset, and had actually produced a spell that backfired on her. She wanted to press the Blood Bond, she really did. Her hands had remained painless all night, but she knew that if the Trace saw magic coming from the Lovegood house at two in the morning, she would be caught. She would press it tomorrow, as soon as she heard her father wake from sleep; he would be her decoy for the Trace set on her sixteen year old head. "I'll bet Ginny pressed it..." Luna grumbled to herself, rolling her eyes at the Gryffindor's defiance of rules she had deemed guidelines, much to her prefect girlfriend's dismay.

Luna's lip caught between her upper and bottom front teeth, which knawed at it thoughtfully as her pale fingers ran the length of her wand. Should she do it? Would it be worth the risk?

She squeezed her eyes shut and jabbed her wand tip-first into the palm of her right hand, Rowan's hand in Blood Bond, and felt a warm feeling of relief when she felt Rowan's life fire sting beautifully in the contained hand. She was alive, at least, if not okay... She would have to figure out what was going on tomorrow, when she and Ginny put their heads together. If anything, she knew that Ginny would be owling her at dawn.

Luna sighed, rolling over on her back to stare up at her ceiling at the faces smiling down at her in her painting of her best friends, and of her soul mate. It was on Maia's laughing face her eyes settled, feeling that familiar roll in the pit of her stomach, and the tightening of her chest as her heart swelled. She was so happy... five long years of a crush, of an unknown mutual feeling... then seven months ago, right after returning from Christmas break, Maia grabbed her wrist as Luna made to rise from the table they shared in the library. Luna would never forget the look in those hazel eyes as they slowly looked up at her, and didn't blink as Maia stood, she'd never forget how they'd never wavered, even when a tentative hand touched her waist, pulling her closer. She'd never lose the imprint of electricity on her soul as Maia's lips moved closer to hers, and then skimmed her bottom lip, before softly pulling it between them. Luna felt her face grow warm as she thought about their first kiss, and how it shook her from head to toe, and singed itself into her beating heart.

She wondered about Rowan again, her eyes finding their way over to her trademark cocky smirk. Luna wondered if it were true, what that evil man had said before he grabbed Rowan and drug her away. Luna closed her eyes against the new surge of pain and guilt, but she flexed her right hand, remembering that it indeed burned when put to the test... if Rowan were dead, nothing at all would have happened... ah, the beautiful heat of the burn that was her best friends' souls.

* * *

The ugly man thrusted his left arm through the barrier at the gates of Malfoy Manor, heaving the heavy weight of the girl thrown over his shoulder. She hadn't wanted to shut up when she got over the shock of the truth, so Rabastian had been forced to Stun her for the remainder of their trip home to mummy and daddy; the little bitch reminded him so much of Bellatrix, he wanted to vomit. He understood, of course, why his brother chose to marry the horror of a woman: she was a formidable witch of immense talent and will, she had been beautiful once, before the ravages of Azkaban had made her insanity seep through. She was from an old family, and had a sizeable dowry; but the woman was mad, even by his low standards.

His eyes flickered over his shoulder at the heap of female meat. She looked as Bellatrix once had, not a smit of his brother or Lestrange likeness; she was her mother made over in looks and mouth. There would be no denying this one for Bellatrix; Rabastian was partly fearful of how she would react.

The house was dark and silent as usual, but Rabastian knew where to find its occupients as he trowled slowly through the halls, Rowan's dead weight was beginning to be a burden, after bearing the hundred and ten pound girl for the length of time he had. The light from the fire lit the otherwise dark room as Rabastian entered the back den of Lucius Malfoy's grand structure, and there he found who he was searching for.

"What, might I ask, is that?" the Dark Lord asked, not looking directly at Rabastian.

"My...niece, my Lord," Rabastian replied respectfully, tossing the girl onto the floor and stepping back from her disgustedly, but bowing before his Lord.

Lord Voldemort turned his face to Rabastian as Bellatrix gave a noise of slight interest from behind him, lounged on a chair looking brooding and bitchy, as always. "Bellatrix...?" the Dark Lord said in barely more than a whisper.

"So it is, my Lord. She is of my own." Bellatrix sat up and rose to her feet, drawing her wand and pointing it at the girl. "Is it dead?"

"Stunned," Rabastain grunted. "I found her at the blood traitor Weasley's place. She was unprotected, and I took her."

"Flesh of my flesh... with trash...?" Bellatrix whispered. How dare this brat? She was nothing short of slime. She had produced... this?

Rabastian nodded, a mocking smile stretching across his pock marked face. "All defensive over a Weasley, the girl child," he purred, fueling Bellatrix's anger at the unconscious teenager on the floor at her feet, where she belonged.

"I'll have to teach her different, then, _won't I_?" Bellatrix said in that deadly tone she acquired when she was in a predatory place in her madness. As fast as any of them could blink, her walnut and dragon heartstring wand was reviving the girl on the floor, and then as soon as she opened her eyes, Bellatrix hit her with a Cruciatus Curse so powerful that the girl folded in on herself so much they heard a popping noise, and her body went slack with paralysis. Bellatrix sneered. "Oh, no, Mudblood lover, not getting off that easy!" She performed a quick spell that popped the spine back into place, and then shot her with another curse, watching her scream. When she pulled her wand back this time, she walked up to the sobbing girl, kicking her in the side. "Why were you with filth?" she hissed at her, bending low, and trailing her wand over her.

Rowan didn't answer, just sobbed, shaking her head. No, this couldn't be happening, this was a nightmare, where the fuck was Tonks? Tonks was always the one to wake her up from the nightmares, the pain of this curse racking through her limbs and through her screams. And Ginny? Did she make it? Could she find her wand? Maybe she could defend herself, maybe she could send a Blood burn through to them, just a touch to each palm-

"ANSWER ME!" The pain came again, and she flopped around like a fish on land, screaming like she was being killed, oh, Merlin, please just kill me, stop stop stop, no please, anything but this-

It stopped, and she panted in the brief absence of the curse and its white hot purgatory turning her bones to ash. "What... filth?" Rowan panted, pushing herself onto her hands and looking the woman dead in the eyes, eyes that matched her own gray eyes, daring her to continue, even through the tears. All her pain aside, she would stand up for her best friend.

Another blast of the curse sent Rowan flying back again, the back of her skull cracking across the floor, and it knocked her out though her body still reacted to the pain, and once again Bellatrix woke her up to administer again. "Who is the Weasley girl to you?"

Rowan didn't say anything, just took the moment to try to think, keep her mind working, but Bellatrix blasted her again. "MY BEST FRIEND!" Rowan bellowed through the pain, just wanting it to stop, they were going to kill her, she just knew it. She'd never see Ginny or Luna again. She'd never see Severus. Oh, bloody hell, it was stopped again... _breathe, Rowan_, she told herself, gulping deep pulls of breath as she forced herself to look back at the mental woman in front of her, not showing any fear.

"Best... friend?" Bellatrix put a finger to her lips, smirking in a way that gave Rowan a pang of recognition... she did the same thing. Oh fuck, this woman was her _mother_, for Merlin's sake. Truth of the matter was shocking to Rowan, as she also saw a bit of herself in the madness. "You will make _new_ friends, Crixsona-"

"What did you call me?" Rowan's voice was stripped, and she couldn't speak above a whisper now, as she still stared defiantly at the scary witch in front of her.

Bellatrix hissed. "Crixsona Saede Lestrange... your name."

"My name is Rowan Sage Tonks," Rowan declared, her voice as strong as she could make it, but it only caught her another bout of Cruciatus... the spell was not lethal, per se, but the effects can cause a permanent damage to the mind... and Rowan was sure she had to be borderline insane by now.

"What did you say? What is your name?"

"Crixsona... Lestrange," Rowan grunted painfully, more at having to say that aloud, than the aftershocks of the curse. She felt her stomach lurch in an unpleasant way, but swallowed the bile when it rose in throat, wincing at the acidic bitterness of it.

"You're a student at Hogwarts?"

Rowan nodded, not saying anything for fear of throwing up everywhere; between the curse and the firewhiskey, she didn't feel very good.

"What House...?" Her voice was dangerous, but Rowan felt that her answer would pleasantly surprise this evil being.

"Slytherin," she replied automatically, and Bellatrix shifted her gaze to her nephew Draco, who was staring in disbelief at Rowan. He couldn't figure out

Draco's mouth flopped up and down for a second as he shifted his light eyes to his mother's older, more frightening sister. "Yes, she is in my House," he confirmed, looking back at Rowan as she set her jaw firmly when Bellatrix looked back down at her.

"There may be hope for you just yet," Bellatrix whispered, her eyes narrowing at Rowan. "Get up, Crixsona, let Mummy look at you."

Fighting the glare that longed to throw itself at Bellatrix, Rowan clenched her jaw even harder as she climbed to her feet to look Bellatrix square in the eye, as she was the exact same height. Bellatrix gave a quick scan of her from head to toe, her lips pursed in an indecision. "Well... you look like Andromeda," she said disgustedly, and Rowan scowled at her for the tone she took when speaking about the lady who had raised her, her aunt. Bellatrix's eyes lit up maniacally. "There! I see me." She cackled, and Rowan surpressed a shudder, which Bellatrix did not notice, but someone else did.

"Do you not wish to see some of your real mother in yourself?" a smooth, light voice asked, and Rowan took her eyes from Bellatrix for the first time since she had been coherent. She nearly fell out as her eyes landed on Lord Voldemort.

"Do you wish you were of the blood that you claim? A Mudblood and a lying traitor?" There was something in his voice that captured her, and she shook her head almost involuntarily, and he nodded. "They betrayed you, didn't they?" Rowan felt herself nod. "You deserve parents that care about your well being, who will tell you the truth... even if it is something you don't want to hear..." Again, Rowan nodded.

"My Lord?" Bellatrix whispered to him. "What would you have me do about this girl?"

Voldemort looked upon his most devoted, and waved his wand, pulling Rowan to him without ever extending a hand. "Hold out your arm, Child," he purred, and it was almost endearing how he said her name... and she felt her left arm fall open, exposing the flesh of her wrist, and she caught sight of Luna's Bond Mark on her left hand, making her regain herself, but it was a moment too late. The Dark Lord cried his curse, and his Mark appeared on her arm, inky black and excruciatingly painful, making her squeal as she gripped her flesh around it, not daring to touch the Mark itself. "I have done it for you, Bellatrix," he answered boredly, flinging Rowan to the madwoman's arms, which restrained her. "She belongs to me."

"As you so wish, my Lord, it is my honor," Bellatrix grovelled, bowing before his form, and dragging the girl away from him. "I'll see to it that she is... accomodated."

Rowan was snatched down a hallway and though Bellatrix had a tight grip on her upper arm, Rowan felt a burning pain in her right hand, right where Ginny's Bond Mark was etched for life. She was checking on her, making sure she was alive. Maybe, just maybe, if Rowan played along with the Death Eaters, maybe if she pretended to be what they wanted her to be... she could go back to Hogwarts when school began in a month. She could see her best friends again. "You will be placed in the dungeon for now," Bellatrix was saying to her as she led her down endless steps into thick darkness. "I'll have sessions with you everyday, for your re-education. When I deem you fit, I'll give you your wand back... and you could go back to finish school... If you know whats good for you." Was she being... motherly-ish?

"If you step out of line, not only will I break your wand... I will torture and kill your best friend in front of you."

Rowan fought down the words that flew to her tongue to be uttered, and instead stared straight ahead as a door came into view, and Bellatrix waved her wand, shoving Rowan into the darkness before slamming the door. "Until tomorrow, then..." Were the last words Rowan heard as Bellatrix walked nonchalantly away.

At least they had not taken her full flask of firewhiskey...


	5. Chapter 5

Ginny wasn't even out of her pajamas the next morning when she jumped out of bed and threw open her school trunk, digging through the spare scraps of parchment and empty ink wells. Finally, she found a quill with the point still intact, and a half-full bottle of ink to scrawl on a strip of parchment: _Want to hang out today? Same place? _She didn't address it, nor did she sign it. She knew it would be enough for Luna, who was extremely bright, despite her eccentricities.

Walking quietly down to the kitchen, the house was still silent and unmoving in the wee hours of the morning, before the sun had even risen completely over the horizon. Ginny knew she didn't have long to send Pig out with the note, and sighed at the fact that his excited twitters would probably wake her mum and she would be caught, anyway. Maybe giving him a pre-job owl treat would suffice. Ginny had a feeling that if her mum woke and found her trying to see Luna so soon after the incident, she wouldn't be happy. But she had to see her. She had to see Luna was okay, even if they couldn't see Rowan. They were Bond mates, and right now they needed each other most.

Pig went without noise, much to Ginny's pleasure, and she made a note to give him a bunch of love when he returned, as the little owl was an attention-monger. Watching him disappear towards the person she had whispered to him, Ginny felt a sinking feeling that the only people she could contact by owl now would be Luna and Maia. Hermione... Ginny's eyes teared up, and she gave a small sob, trying not to let her emotions take control over her. Where was she? Was she okay? How long would this last? She hadn't even been gone for a full twenty-four hours, yet Ginny already felt like it had been a year. She imagined Hermione standing behind her now, arms holding her around her waist, her chin resting on her shoulder as they watched the sun come up, enjoying the feel of each other in a quiet moment. Ginny held herself around her own waist, feeling a sickening sensation that vital pieces of herself had been ripped away. _Ripped away by Voldemort_, Ginny thought sourly, anger quickly replacing her sadness as it so often did.

"Ginny? What are you doing up?"

Her mother's voice made her jump, and she quickly shut the back door on the beautifully painted sky. "Nothing, I just couldn't sleep," she lied, and Molly gave her a penetrating stare.

"Then where's Pigwidgeon?" Ginny should have known her mother's eyes were sharp enough to catch his empty cage.

Ginny's face went nearly as red as her hair. "Perhaps... Luna's?"

Molly's stern face softened, and she felt silly for a second, thinking that her daughter could be naive enough to owl Hermione. Of course not. "Ginny, maybe you two should give it a few days before you–"

"No, Mum," Ginny softly said, shaking her head slowly. She was a year from being of age, but she still had the final tone of a fully grown witch that made her own decisions. "Our Bond mate is gone. You have no idea how that makes us feel. And on top of that, Hermione is gone. Luna and Maia are all I have."

Molly pulled her daughter into a hug, slightly pushing up on to her tip toes to kiss her temple. Ginny was taller than she, but Molly was convinced that she had to be shrinking, because it stood true for all of her kids. Even Harry and Hermione hovered over her by a few inches. But she couldn't deny that her children were now adults, even Ginny. Ginny had always been older than her years, even when she was a chirping little girl who asked Ron endless questions about Hermione. Ginny had been fascinated with her because she was Muggle-born, and Ginny had never even seen a Muggle up close. Molly sensed something between the two girls before they had ever realized it themselves, and it made her happy that her daughter could find her love at such a young age... but now she was a woman, standing here in the kitchen that she had caught fire once, in a temper and unable to control her magic at merely five years old. Arthur told Molly that night, and she agreed, "We're going to have our hands full with Ginny." How right they were.

Ginny didn't understand the tears standing in her mother's eyes a moment later when she pulled back from her embrace, but she didn't pry, as neither of them were stable enough to support the other at the moment. Molly waved a hand dismissively at Ginny's questioning stare, and Ginny nodded as both women moved back into the hall. "I'm going to shower and get dressed. I assume Luna will send an answer with Pigwidgeon," Ginny said with a sigh, looking up the tall staircase to her bathroom.

"I'll start you some breakfast," Molly replied, and Ginny shook her head.

"I'm not hungry," she said in a dead voice, wondering if she'd ever be hungry again.

"Even so, you will eat something before you leave to see Luna," Molly replied with a firm tone, the one Ginny knew the was no use to argue with.

Ginny shrugged and went on up the stairs, leaving Molly standing at the bottom staring up after her. It was like a fire had gone out in Ginny's eyes. It spooked her mother, who knew her to be a bold, vivacious soul. She hoped that Ginny could find herself, and soon. She would need it in the dark times to come.

_

* * *

_

_"So warm," Maia whispered to her as they lay together, both still heaving with the after effects of the efforts they had previously indulged themselves. Luna enjoyed this part, the tender way that Maia held her after they made love. The gentle way her lips would press all over her face, Luna savoring the feel, the velvet of her hands as they held her close. Then Maia started tapping the headboard of the bed in Luna's dorm room, and Luna gave her a questioning look. Maia just grinned and tapped again... tap tap tap tap..._

_Tap. Tap. Taptap._

Luna's sky blue eyes opened from the dream she'd been having, and she wasn't happy about it because Maia wasn't there to gratify the feelings her body was racked with. Rolling over on her back and covering her face with her hands with a groan, she heard the tapping that had awoken her, and looking to the window alight with the early morning, she saw a familiar ball of feathers dancing up and down in front of the panes. Sliding her hand beneath her pillow and scooping out her wand, Luna pulled herself free of her tangled bedclothes, twisted from the physical effects of her vivid dream. _Why did her mother make her leave?_ Luna thought with a pout as she reached the window and unlocked it, letting swing forward and admit her tiny visitor.

"Come on, Pigwidgeon, sweet owl," she cooed, holding out her hand as he puffed himself up proudly from the boudoir. He fluttered down into her palm, and she took the slip of parchment from his beak, running a finger down his chest as he hooted happily and nipped at her finger in a friendly way. She walked over to the tin near her window and scooped a tiny owl treat free to feed to him, and he hooted again in a chipper tone. Luna read over the single line of words as he ate his treat, and flipped it over to write her reply. It did not take this young scholar long to find one of the many quills scattered in her room, and she flipped open her ink well that never went dry. _Same time, _was all she wrote, and as Pigwidgeon finished his snack, she let him take it from her. "For Ginny, of course," she told him, and he gave a muffled hoot before fluttering back out the way he entered.

No sooner than she put a hand on her window to pull it closed, she spotted a speck in the distance that was coming closer, and she stared at it for a minute to see what it was. A few moments later she realized it was another owl, this one much larger than Pigwidgeon. It was heading directly to Luna's window, and she stepped aside as the proud bird flew confidently into her room, holding out her foot with an air of purpose. Luna smiled at its disposition. She knew this owl, as well as its owner. "Hello, Morgana," she said sweetly, and the bird blinked its amber eyes slowly at her in acknowledgment as Luna reached to untie the twine holding a roll of parchment. "Help yourself to the treats, it may be a while before I can reply," Luna said generously, gesturing to the tin. She lamented not having an owl of her own at times like these.

Luna unrolled the parchment, smiling at the neat penmanship she knew so well.

_My Shining Moon Child– I miss you. I couldn't sleep at all last night, and Mum seems to be serious when she says I can't leave the house before we go to catch the train to Hogwarts. What happened yesterday has her terrified, and she's clinging to me as if I'll perish like Dad. I can't say that I feel that Hogwarts will be as safe from attack as she thinks; we've lost its greatest defender. _

_I've tried to reason with Mum, but its come to nothing. Perhaps your dad would be more lenient, and allow you to stay the rest of the summer with me? I can't bear to think of not holding you before September first. That's a whole month away. Please talk to him? I don't feel whole without you._

_I love you. I can't wait to see your smile. _

_Yours Forever, Your Star Child_

Luna sighed in happiness, but felt sad that she would have to decline the request of her company over in London. She knew her father would probably agree, but she didn't want to be far from Ginny, not in this time of need. Hermione was gone, Luna knew that, and so was Rowan, so she was all Maia's cousin had. Floating over to her desk, she used a fresh sheet of parchment and a new quill to reply to her girlfriend, that smile still ghosted across her features.

_Twinkling brightly in my personal sky, the only Star that makes me sigh– I miss you, more! I dreamed about you last night. Perhaps I can write later, and tell you of it. I can't come to London right now, Lovely. I have to be here, I have to be near Ginny. Darkness has come to pass, and I'm not sure how she is doing. _

_It is torture that you can't be here with me. But I suggest you follow your mum's wishes and stay home, and safe. It is dangerous out there, and I won't have you sneaking off to see me! Promise me you'll behave, and you won't regret it once term begins... the night of September first will be one you'll remember forever, as long as you're a good lass._

_'I love you' does not suffice to say the things I feel for you. My heart calls the phrase weak in comparison._

_Officially Proven Yours, Your Moon Child_

Luna pressed her lips to the letter, and called Morgana over to tie it to her leg, using the same twine that Maia had. "You know who this is for, my feathered friend," Luna whispered, and Morgana gave a deep hoot before swooping out of Luna's window. Luna watched her disappear, and her heart sank that it wasn't she delivering the letter to her beloved. A month was truly a long time to wait, but she felt guilty as soon as the thought of Ginny and Rowan. Rowan, gone, but alive. Ginny suffering the absence of Hermione. Luna was fortunate, fortunate indeed, that she would see her Maia so soon.

* * *

"Get up, filth of my womb! Stand before your mother. Lessons begin now." Rowan's eyes squeezed even further shut at the sound of Bellatrix's voice ringing into the cement room, devoid of anything but Rowan, herself. She had been sleeping with her back against a wall, scared to place her head upon the dirty floor with the rats scurrying about in the night; and now she regretted it, as she leaned her head forward to open her eyes, and a dull pain throbbed down her neck. _Ah, fuck_, she thought to herself as she rubbed it gently, and looked up at the dark silhouette towering over her, outlined in the light from the open cellar door behind her imposing figure.

"Woman, what are you playing at?" Rowan mumbled, forgetting for a moment who she was speaking to.

"_CRUCIO!_" the shadow bellowed, and Rowan fell sideways with the pain racking through her, screams ripping through her raw vocals, already hoarse and dry from the bout of torture the night before.

"Lesson number one: _watch your tongue, girl_," Bellatrix hissed, but she didn't miss the resemblance to herself in the girl's smart mouth. "Don't forget to whom you are speaking, are we clear?"

Rowan laid on the floor, gasping for breath and trying to sit up, before she hit with another torture curse that threw her onto her back. _"Answer me when I'm speaking to you!"_ Bellatrix roared as she applied her displeasure with her wand, and when she relented and Rowan fell, she went on in a sickly sweet tone, "I should like you to call me Mummy."

"Yes–Mummy," Rowan gasped out with a grimace, holding her ribs inside herself, as it felt they would fall through her melted flesh at any moment.

"Very good," Bellatrix purred, whipping her wand around again, only this movement and silent incantation swept Rowan to her feet and Bellatrix used her wand as a baton to control the direction Rowan walked. "Come now, we don't want to keep the others waiting," she cooed dangerously, and Rowan gave a shudder at her biological maternal figure. Is this madness what was in store for her as she grew older. Sure, she was good at sixteen, had a heart of gold, loved her family, and her friends... but it seemed this woman had loyalties as well, and even had an interest in her own daughter in a sick and twisted way. On the darker side, Rowan also had interests that disgusted her closest friends, and of which her family was ignorant: she _was _interested in the Dark Arts, not as weapons, per se... more like a respectful acknowledgment. _And secretly, I _have _always admired this woman's wandwork_, she though to herself as Bellatrix led her up the cellar stairs. _I'll bet she could teach me things that Hogwarts would make wince when breached in conversation._ The journey ended in a large bathroom with a tub set in the middle, already full of bubbled water and fresh robes folded up neatly along side it, her wand– _my wand?_– setting peacefully on top of the pile. Bellatrix saw what her only offspring's eyes had locked on, and gave a small chuckle. "Yes, my dear Crixsona, I am giving you your wand back. Now that you're branded, I suppose I would be able to find you– wherever you run. And so that we're clear, if you run, and I find you, I'll kill everyone you're accompanied with."

Rowan felt the spell lift, and she was in control again, and she gave a deep sigh as she began to untie the bindings of her dress robes. She looked over her shoulder to see Bellatrix still standing there, her arms crossed over her chest, but her face looking away pointedly. She wasn't going anywhere, but she wasn't watching her bathe, either. Rowan knew that was the best she was going to get, so with a resigned noise in her throat, she disrobed and slid into the warm water of the tub with a groan of pleasure. The water felt good on her tortured body, and she felt like she could stay in there forever as her head fell back onto the edge and she slid deeper. A sharp noise jerked her out of her oncoming relaxation, making her jump, splashing a little water.

"I didn't bring you in here for a treat, hurry up and wash your disgusting self!" Bellatrix snapped at her, and Rowan scowled in response, and Bellatrix lifted her wand.

"Okay, okay," Rowan yelled, and Bellatrix lowered the wand but did not remove her eyes as Rowan dunked her head and began to bathe.

Dressed in clean black robes with a loose hood, Rowan shifted uncomfortably in the Death Eater's robes she'd been issued. They felt heavy and scratchy, stuffy and tight around the collar. Bellatrix watched her tug at them with a smirk. "Get used to them," she sneered. "That's all you'll wear until you return to Hogwarts."

Rowan scowled and stashed her wand in the robes inner pocket, standing straight to look Bellatrix in the eyes. "As you wish, Mummy," she said, fighting to keep the scathing tone to a minimum, and succeeding. Bellatrix merely gestured her to go out first, her wand never lowering.

Bellatrix steered her through the large and dark mansion to the room where she'd awoken the night before after Rabastan had kidnapped her. There were less people in here today, as it seemed to only be Lucius, Narcissa, and Draco aside from themselves. As Rowan's slate gray eyes scanned the room before her, she noticed another figure, quite away from the small tangent of Death Eaters gathered. It was bundled up in a ball in a far corner, and now that Rowan had taken notice, it seemed to her that it was whimpering softly, perhaps sobbing. Her face grew curious as she watched it roll over and she finally realized she was looking at a boy no more than ten years old, with wide, frightened eyes, and tear-streaked cheeks.

"Ah," Bellatrix whispered delightedly. "You see your visitor. Young man was arrested for trying to buy a wand in Diagon Alley with his Muggle parents, who were both punished for stealing magic for their son," she continued conspiratorally, hiding her mouth from the boy in an obvious fashion.

Rowan stared at the little boy, who had surely gotten the letter from Hogwarts, who was surely Muggle-born, just as her friend Hermione was. He looked directly back into her eyes, and she could read his expression of desperation, needing her to help him. The boat ride to the castle, however, was not a ride this boy would ever take. "How were his parents punished?" she asked in an indifferent tone, but her mind screamed in frustration, knowing what was expected of her and this boy.

"Death..." The word rolled off Bellatrix's tongue as if she were saying the name of a lover, and it made Rowan shiver. "And so shall his punishment be."

Rowan removed her eyes from the boy's, and instead turned her gaze to the manic gleam in Bellatrix's. "You should draw your wand now," Bellatrix said softly, daring Rowan to refuse.

Something in Rowan's mind stretched and snapped. She was terrified, and couldn't show how much so. Her heart was breaking for the child on the floor before her, knowing there was no hope for his life, or her soul. _Why me? just leave me- and him!- alone! _she wanted to scream, but as it was, she wordlessly pulled her wand free of her robes and held it high towards the boy, tears gathering in her eyes. "Let's play for a bit first, shall we?" she said softly, not looking at the others in the room, just at the child in front of her. "_Crucio!_" The child screamed an ear-splitting screech, and his tiny body lifted from the stone floor in a near levitation. "You dare, boy? You dare put me in this situation?" Rowan screamed her own frustrations, knowing it wasn't the boy's fault, but unable to turn her wand on four others who she could fantasize were in his place.

Bellatrix watched in unabashed awe of the young witch before her, seeing herself in Crixsona's stance, and her style. She had flair, and a beautiful taste in hexes, as she watched the Mudblood child writhe in her daughter's power. She knew some nasty spells, and it pleased her mother almost to the point of pride. _Perhaps there is hope for my extension of flesh, after all._

Rowan was lost in her mind as she administered horror after horror on the lad, who was nearly dead from the magical torture she had put him through. She refused to take his life, however much her wand ravaged him, and she applied one last blast of the Cruciatus Curse, making this one count, and she snatched her wand back with an arrogant sweep of her robes as she turned her back towards the boy and strode directly from the room. She couldn't watch them kill him, no matter how cruel she had been. Perhaps they would merely lock him in Azkaban, if they were both lucky. "Do what you will, I am bored with this," she said in a voice that reminded everyone, including herself, of the mad witch that watched her go with her mouth slightly open.

The same witch that raised her wand just as her daughter exited gracefully from their presence, and muttered the last thing the child would ever hear. "_Avada Kedavra!_"

_So much for fucking luck_, Rowan thought to herself, covering her eyes and falling against the wall outside the room, her knees weak. _I'm sorry, kid..._


	6. Chapter 6

The house was painfully familiar, as was the smell of the air. Rowan took a deep inhale of the first fresh air to bless her lungs since her capture; how ironic it was that it would be here, where she grew up. Then the lump in her throat returned, and the pain in her chest roared again. She couldn't believe Bellatrix's cunning and ruthlessness, despite how much time she had spent with the madwoman over the last three weeks. Rowan's final test was today. After today, she would be... allowed... to return to school, to escape the oppressive Death Eaters that diseased the halls of Malfoy Manor. It would not be true to say she would be free. The Dark Mark scorched into the flesh of her arm made her a slave to survival.

_"I have a special treat for you today, Crixsona," Bellatrix said as she bounded into Rowan's bedroom and threw open the blinds. "Today, you will get to see your precious Andromeda and that thing she married."_

_Rowan rubbed the sleep from her gray eyes and squinted at the bouncing figure before her, shrouded by bright sunlight. Bellatrix was beside herself in excitement, and Rowan could not suppress her shudder of horror. Whatever had Bellatrix this happy was certainly not going to bode well for anyone else involved, and it made Rowan's heart pound. Her mother and father... how she missed them, how she cried at night for their arms and warm words. Bellatrix was orchestrating an evil thing, Rowan felt it in her soul, which thankfully remained intact. "Merlin's balls, no," Rowan whispered to herself fearfully, tears rising in her eyes. _

_"What was that, _dear_?" Bellatrix asked mockingly as she tossed a dress from the wardrobe onto Rowan's bed, and upon seeing Rowan's nose wrinkle at it in distaste, she cackled gleefully. "Can't have sweet Andromeda thinking I'm too far gone 'round the bend to take care of my own little piece of scum," she purred with a smirk, which disappeared abruptly. "Now get dressed. We leave in an hour's time, if you're late, they are as good as dead." And she smiled again as Rowan's blood went cold. "Hurry, lovie!"_

_"Yes, Mummy," Rowan whispered painfully, just wishing Bellatrix would leave so the tears fighting her eyes could slide free without punishment. _

It felt like a dream, watching from behind her mask of cowardice that presented a non-descript Death Eater, standing behind Bellatrix as she commanded the door be brought down. Bellatrix was so bold that she bare no disguise, maniacally aloof as always, her wand at the ready as Dolohov kicked the door open with his foot. "Sister?" Bellatrix crooned into the darkness of the house, reaching back to wrap her bony fingers around Rowan's wrist, pulling her forward. Looking left and right with her wand drawn, she muttered a quick "_Lumos!" _

The beam from the tip of Bellatrix's wand illuminated an empty den, the old couch on which had Rowan loved to read her books, and the fireplace, which looked cold and lonely. Rowan felt her heart speed up, her breathing increase, and she felt like she could pass out from the lack of oxygen making it to her brain. It looked as if no one had been here for weeks. Could she be so lucky?

"Spread out," Bellatrix ordered, and when Rowan tried to move at her own liberty, Bellatrix hissed. "You stay with me, girly. _Homenum revelio."_ A pause, and then Bellatrix gave a chuckle. "How weak," she muttered, tugging Rowan behind her to the back of the house. "I have something here for you, Andromeda," Bellatrix called tauntingly when they reached the kitchen, as dark and cold as the rest of the house. Another wave of Bellatrix's wand Vanished the mask over Rowan's terrified gray eyes, and at the same moment she heard a cry from behind them, and Bellatrix had turned and cursed the source before Rowan could even glance back.

There was a loud thud as Andromeda fell face down on her own kitchen floor, her wand frozen in her hand with the Full-Body Bind Bellatrix had blasted at her. Rowan unwittingly gave a cry of protest, rushing forward to help the woman she loved and knew as her real mother, but a blast of the Cruciatus from Bellatrix stopped her in her tracks, and she fell to her knees beside Andromeda's frozen form, balling up in agony, her screams bouncing from wall to wall. "That wasn't very smart, girl! Now get up, you have work to do, you ungrateful little bitch! GET UP!" Another brief blast of pain, and Rowan found herself scrambling to her feet, wiping the tears from her eyes, trying to hold back her sobs. "Your wand, Crixsona," Bellatrix snapped as Rowan stood straight, and Rowan looked at her with wide, pleading eyes, tears still standing deep over the gray-green irises.

"Bella-Mummy! Please, no, anything but that," she gasped, her breath coming in short spurts.

Bellatrix's black eyes narrowed, and her wand raised a bit higher. Rowan gulped, looking back down at Andromeda, whose eyes were also spilling silent tears, staring right into her own. Rowan squeezed her eyes shut, wiping her face on the lacy sleeve of the dress Bellatrix had made her wear, sniffing hard against the snot draining from her cherry red nose. Bellatrix strode forward, gripping Rowan's chin in her hand hard, bringing her face inches from her daughter's. "You'll do as I say, you sickening little piss ant," she hissed, flecks of saliva coating Rowan's pursed lips and chin. The odor of Bellatrix's breath was enough to shed the feathers from a hippogriff. "If you don't point your little useless stick at that woman and show her my displeasure for kidnapping my daughter to raise her to be a Mudblood-loving, blood traitor brat, I am going to show her in a whole other way, and I can promise you, Crixsona: you will want to put your wand to her before I let her feel mine." Pushing Rowan's face back as she stepped away, Bellatrix Disarmed her younger sister for which she felt no regard, and lifted the curse she had lain upon her.

Andromeda's sobs immediately filled the air as she rolled slowly to her knees before Rowan, looking up at her youngest with a shade of fear in the dark eyes that so matched Bellatrix's. Rowan could see how she had passed for Andromeda's biological daughter for sixteen years; the resemblance between the three witches gathered in that dark room was unmistakable. She was sure she looked much more like Andromeda at this moment in time, however, as Rowan felt the terror that was mirrored on Andromeda's face as Bellatrix chuckled to herself in the corner, holding Andromeda's wand hostage. "Rowan," Andromeda gasped, reaching for the hem of the dress Rowan wore; but Bellatrix caused Rowan's body to take a quick step back, out of the wanting grasp of a mother seeing her daughter alive and well after fearing otherwise.

"Crixsona," Bellatrix snapped, and Rowan's chest exploded with a new set of sobs, racking her body, breaking her ribs with their depth.

Rowan looked back down at the woman on the floor, and mouthed, "I'm sorry, I love you," before raising her wand, pointing it at Andromeda's chest with a shaking arm. She closed her eyes. "_Crucio_," Rowan whispered, then her heart stopped as Andromeda's screams filled the room around them, rival only to Bellatrix's mad laughter as she danced a victory dance around the other two witches. The spell killed itself as sorrow brimmed over, and at Andromeda's quiet panting, Bellatrix growled.

"Again," she said silkily, eyes narrowing into slits once more.

Rowan sobbed harder, raising her wand again, thinking hard that it was Bellatrix she was cursing, using the one thing that made her hot with a hate fit for the Cruciatus. "CRUCIO!" she screamed, and she ignored the sounds as she trained her wand on Andromeda for a full minute, sixty long seconds of torturing the person that nurtured and loved her for all her miserable life.

"Enough." The word was spoken low and calm, yet Rowan heard it over the torturous cries. And more than gratefully, she ceased the application, and fell to the floor beside Andromeda, trying to crawl to her mother, and their fingers barely brushed each other's before a curse hit them both. "I do not think so, Andromeda," Bellatrix purred after lifting her well-practiced wand. "She belongs to the Dark Lord, now." Reaching down and snatching Rowan back by the collar of her dress, Bellatrix leaned down to Andromeda, slowly pulling up the sleeve on Rowan's dress to show her the Dark Mark branded there. "Feel privileged that you are my Blood, little sister. It is what salvages your heart beat tonight."

* * *

"Hurry along, now, girls, we've only got so much time before we have to be back for the meeting," Molly Weasley whispered to Ginny and Luna as they made their rounds in Diagon Alley, trying scavenge school supplies from the remaining shops on the now almost-derelict street. "Ginny!"

Ginny jumped at her name being called so sharply, as she had been zoned out on the new broom from the Firebolt series, visions of fame and granduer playing in her mind as she imagined flying into a pitch with an announcer calling in the background, "...aaaaand, our Harpies' team Captain, Ginny Weasley!" Ginny gave a long sigh. _Alas, _she thought to herself. "Sorry, Mum, I'm coming," she muttered, and Luna placed a gentle hand on her friend's sagging shoulder.

"It's not much longer now," Luna said soothingly, mistaking Ginny's demeanor for Hermione's absence. Though Ginny appreciated the support, it was this which reminded her that she would be travelling the halls of Hogwarts' castle alone this year, empty handed and with a heavy tread.

"Surprisingly, that's not what I was worrying about," Ginny said dryly, looking ahead with a painful squint to her dark brown eyes, the hole in her chest twinging mercilessly. "I was thinking about... you know, trying out for the Harpies... after Hogwarts." She finished her sentence, and waited on Luna to laugh, but when it didn't come, she looked over at her blonde friend with a curious eyebrow raised.

"What? Don't you think you're talented?" Luna replied to this look, and Ginny chuckled.

"I know I am," she replied cockily, but she deflated soon after. "But good enough for Holyhead? I'm not so sure." She thought of her heroine, Gwenog Jones, and the genius with which Gwenog flew. Ginny shook her head as she saw in her mind the perfect Grinning Skull Pivot that Gwenog had manuvered in the Harpies last match against Jensington Heights. _There's no way I could pull off beauty such as that without killing myself._

"I have confidence in you," Luna said serenely as they followed Molly into Flourish and Blotts for their new text books. "You are the best Chaser Gryffindor has had since Angelina Johnson."

"Rowan is better than I am," Ginny sighed, thinking of her Slytherin Chaser best friend. They had flown against each other several times in the last four years, and though Slytherin hadn't beaten them since Ginny had been on the team, Rowan was still a very skilled and able player, one of which Ginny was wary on the pitch. She found herself wondering if Rowan would return to school. They had heard no news of her since being informed that she was taken to the Malfoy's estate in Wiltshire.

September first was only two days away, and Ginny and Luna were both caught in trepidation of who they would and would not find on Platform 9 3/4. Four days after the raid on the wedding, the _Daily Prophet_ had informed Wizardkind that attendance to Hogwarts was now compulsory for pureblood children, and that there had been a new committee formed to register Muggle-born children and adults alike. The Registry claimed to do research on how these witches and wizards came to bear wands with no magical ancestry, and had found that the magic had been stolen, or taken by force. If one could not prove his relation to at least one pureblood family, the person was thrown in Azkaban automatically, their wands snapped in half. Ginny's heart had stopped at reading it, thinking about her Hermione. Hermione was Muggle-born, and Ginny knew she would not register, knew that this was only going to bring more heat on the Golden Trio, and the fact that Hermione's disappearance would make the Ministry focus on Ron as well, when he did not return to school. She could only hope that the Death Eaters that would check up on him would buy the ploy of the ghoul in Ron's pajamas and nasty pustules across its facade.

This time when Luna clasped her shoulder, it was for the reasons she felt. Ginny missed all three of them terribly, but deep down she knew they were okay; Voldemort would venerate Harry's death, and use it as a symbol of lost hope, to break the remaining resistence to his regime. As the wanted posters bearing the familiar bespeckled face and tousled black hair were still plastered all over Diagon Alley, Ginny knew Harry, Ron, and her love were still alive, and it comforted her in the slightest.

A few hours later, Luna and Ginny lounged lazily at the foot of the stairs in the Burrow, an Extendable Ear trailing from beneath the door to the kitchen, and the two girls huddled together over the other end. Though Ginny knew Fred and George would tell her the discussions happening behind the door, Ginny wanted to be able to hear the topics first hand, in case of news of Rowan or Hermione and the boys. So far, she only heard updates about the things she knew, such as the Registry and its victims, to the Dementor attacks in Muggle London. There was news that the body of an Auror had been found in his home that day, and a family of Muggles had been found grotesquely disfigured and had been admitted to St. Mungo's for what treatment there was available. Luna could feel herself begin to be sick, and tossed down the end before ripping up the stairs to hurl in the bathroom. _What monsters could hang a child by his own entrails like a sick piece of art?_

It seemed the meeting was nearly drawing to a close by the time a shaky and paler-than-usual Luna rejoined Ginny in their previous position, and Luna had barely stuck the thing to her ear when there was a great slamming of the back door and everyone in the kitchen yelled in consternation of the noise. Ginny and Luna were in the kitchen with their wands drawn before they knew it, and it was a sight to see Maia and her mother holding up a hysterical Andromeda. At the sight of the look on Andromeda's features, Ginny and Luna both went numb with fear, because it took a great sorrow for someone to appear as broken as Andromeda appeared. Had something happened to Rowan? The Order members were clambering around her, trying to get her into a chair, and Tonks fell to her knees beside her mother, touching her red face, panicked.

"Mum? What's happened?" Tonks cried, and Andromeda gave a withering sob as everyone settled down and Maia found her way over to Luna, pulling her into herself to protect her from the news she was about to hear.

"She Apparated onto my door step, I can't understand how she did it in such a state without Splinching herself," Maia's mother Freesia explained in a distraught tone. "We brought her here."

Andromeda just threw herself into Tonks and sobbed unrestrainedly into the neck of Tonks' robes, and everyone held their breath as she took a deep breath and tried to speak. "Rowan..."

"No," Ginny whispered, clutching her wand to her chest in fear. It couldn't be.

"Mum... is she... is my sister dead?" Tonks whispered, and it seemed to echo in the crowded kitchen.

Andromeda swallowed hard and shook her head. She hoped that Rowan's punishment had not been death. "It was Bellatrix. She led another raid on my home." She paused to sit up and wipe at her eyes. "I Disillusioned myself and hid in the kitchen, but she cast the Revealing spell and caught my body in the current."

"Where is Father?" Tonks asked emotionlessly, trying to detach herself from the turmoil she felt inside.

"He left," Andromeda whispered. "He left when the _Prophet_ announced about the Registry. I agreed, my Blood Status as a Black is enough protection for me."

"What happened when Bellatrix found you?" Kingsley Shacklebolt asked with his deep timbre.

Andromeda looked up at him as if she had just noticed he was there. "She came into the kitchen with another Death Eater, only this one wore a mask. You all know my sister... Proud, too proud to hide herself when she commits her atrocities. When I did not answer her calls, she Vanished the mask from the other person's face, and it was... my Rowan, my baby." She broke down again at this, her shoulders quaking while she hid her face in her hands, and Tonks' face went pale.

Ginny felt Luna's hand intertwine with hers, and she clamped down on it. There was so much...

"And then she told Rowan to show me her displeasure... and tortured Rowan when she wouldn't lift her wand against me. It was worse than being a victim myself, watching my baby girl scream and cry under that monster's ministrations. In the end, Rowan looked at me and apologized so Bellatrix could not hear, and told me she loved me. And Rowan applied the Cruciatus on my person." She broke down again, and Ginny's ear were ringing as that last last sentence rang like funeral bells in her mind. Rowan, torturing her own mother? How could she? Ginny would rather die than turn her wand on either of her parents. Could Rowan be so selfish that she tortured her own mother to save her own neck?

"Bellatrix wouldn't let us touch. She tried to come to me, and I to her, but Bellatrix tortured us both, and then she said- she said-" A strangled cry escaped her throat as Andromeda attempted to relay the last of her meeting with Rowan and Bellatrix.

"Oh, Mum," Tonks breathed, cradling her sobbing mother, slowly rocking her back and forth.

A few seconds passed as Andromeda collected her senses enough to spit out the last of her story. "Bellatrix pulled up Rowan's sleeve and said 'She belongs to the Dark Lord, now.' Rowan has- she has the Mark!"

If Maia's arms had not been holding Luna up, she would have followed Ginny straight to the floor when the red head's eyes rolled back in her skull and she fell out in the kitchen floor, and as it was, Luna was limp in Maia's embrace. As the the room went into an uproar once more, Tonks closed her eyes and held her sobbing mother while everyone around them fussed over Ginny and Luna. "I suppose this isn't the best time to tell you, Mother, but... I'm pregnant," she whispered.


End file.
